Yesterday afternoon I finally saw Craig Brewer and Eddie Murphy‘s Dolemite Is My Name (Netflix, currently streaming). Loved it, very cool, super-likable, at times hilarious. Call it a reconsecration of the Larry Karaszewski-Scott Alexander brand, and a definite bounce-back for Brewer and especially Murphy.

Let’s clearly understand that first and foremost this is a Scott and Larry film, and is basically a blaxploitation version of Ed Wood — same spirit, same or similar arc for the main character, same pluck and never-say-die determination, same indifference to (or an inability to recognize) the basic concept of quality, same naive but dedicated crew of co-conspirators.

The difference between Ed Wood and Dolemite is that a sizable African-American audience responds with enthusiasm and joy to the crappy cinematic creations of the real-life Rudy Ray Moore (played by Murphy) while nearly everyone despised Plan 9 For Outer Space (except for purveyors of camp a decade or two later).

The slight downside is that Dolemite Is My Name doesn’t have its own Bela Lugosi character, much less someone like Martin Landau portraying him, and it doesn’t have a facsimile of that gay Bill Murray character.

Then again Ed Wood didn’t have the open-hearted Lady Nancy Reed (played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph).

Dolemite is My Name is a tribute to tenacity and one man’s relentless belief in himself, despite his utter lack of talent and/or inspiration, and especially his absolute lack of respect for the craft of cinema, let alone any artistic potential.

Shitty, low-rent filmmaker makes good because he won’t quit, and because people with no taste ** like what he’s selling!

The funniest scene, for me, is when Rudy and his Dolemite homies are reading the initjal reviews. One critic, Earl Calloway of the Chicago Defender, wrote that “Dolemite is not fit for a blind dog to see…it’s coarse, bold, crude, and rude.” For whatever reason I started laughing uncontrollably when I heard this, and I’m what you might call an LQTM type.

Another critic called it “Dull-emite.”

The Beast doesn’t get to take a bow for killing Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. On 10.22.12 he tweeted that President Obama had been overpraised and/or didn’t deserve credit for Osama bin Laden‘s death because “Navy Seals killed [him].” By the same token Trump had almost nothing to do with the ISIS leader’s death. He was merely told that al-Baghdadi had been targeted and was about to be hit, and so he said “yeah, go for it, whatever.”

Here's the moment: Trump downplays the operation to kill Osama bin Laden under President Obama because bin Laden didn't become "big" until the World Trade Center attacks and al-Baghdadi created a caliphate. pic.twitter.com/efLwLu1ROZ

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 27, 2019

From N.Y. Times story: “Mr. Trump said Mr. al-Baghdadi was chased to the end of a tunnel, ‘whimpering and crying and screaming all the way’ as he was pursued by American military dogs. Accompanied by three children, Mr. al-Baghdadi then detonated a suicide vest, blowing up himself and the children, Mr. Trump said.”

Imagine Trump being somehow caught in in the crosshairs, alone and without bodyguards and being chased down a tunnel by terrorists. Is there anyone on the planet earth who believes he would die like Jim Bowie or Davy Crockett at the Alamo, manfully and with fierce brave dignity? Is there any chance he wouldn’t beg for his life by suggesting that he and his would-be killers “could make a great deal”?

There’s no question that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was a radical homicidal animal. Let no one doubt that his having reportedly killed three children along with himself with a suicide vest was a selfish and cowardly act. But does anyone think that Trump would have the cojones to off himself under any circumstance, if he was looking at doom either way?

Again: “Mr. al-Baghdadi’s body was mutilated by the blast, but Mr. Trump said a test had confirmed his identity. The president made a point of repeatedly portraying Mr. al-Baghdadi as ‘sick and depraved’ and him and his followers as ‘losers’ and ‘frightened puppies,’ using inflammatory, boastful language unlike the more solemn approaches by other presidents in such moments. ‘He died like a dog,’ Mr. Trump said. ‘He died like a coward.'”

But never forget that ISIS was essentially created by the 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S. forces and the administration of Baghdad that followed, and that the real villains in this whole mess are George Bush and more precisely Dick Cheney.

“A recent screening of Atlantique (aka Atlantics) was really good. So well captured. All the amateur actors were earthy and real. Not only was it about the desperation of boat refugees trying to get to Spain from impoverished Senegal, but woven together with a throughly believable story of true love. After the screening I spoke briefly with the delightful director/ ex-actress Mati Diop, and we talked about how hard it is to find real obstacles in telling love stories in the 21st century. This is a definite international feature Oscar nom. It will be hard to beat the current popular tidal wave of Parasite and Pain and Glory, agreed, but this is a seriously worthy contender.”

“Zero Tolerance,” a 54-minute Frontline report about the Trump administration’s war on immigration, began streaming four days ago. I’ll be watching it this weekend. Any reactions?

Boilerplate: “FRONTLINE investigates how President Trump turned immigration into a powerful political weapon that fueled division and violence. The documentary goes inside the efforts of three political insurgents to tap into populist anger, transform the Republican Party and crack down on immigration.”

“Everything about Tom Harper‘s The Aeronauts seems tailored to the lowest-common-denominator ADD demo. Every line and scene is aimed at the peanut gallery. Every potential risk and thrill element (almost falling out of the passenger basket, climbing up the side of a balloon in frigid weather) struck me as cartoonishly crude and exaggerated. The recreations of early 1860s London felt about as genuinely atmospheric as the depictions of mid 1930s London in Mary Poppins Returns, which is to say “pass the crackerjack.” It all feels like a movie — a show for the shmoes.

“The bottom line is that I didn’t care very much about Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones above the clouds. One of them could have frozen to death (one almost does) or fallen to the earth and I wouldn’t have blinked an eye. I’ve had a problem with Redmayne ever since The Danish Girl, and especially since Jupiter Ascending. He has a deeply punchable face.

“Just as the voyage begins there’s a moment when Amelia Wren throws a small dog out of the basket about 150 feet up, but he lands safely with a parachute. (This was apparently a real-deal stunt that Blanchard or Graham did to amuse the crowds.) If only The Aeronauts had shown this stunt going wrong…if the parachute hadn’t opened and the dog had gone splat on the pavement, I would’ve respected it more. At least that would have been unexpected. As is, The Aeronauts is completely predictable and assembly-line.” — from “Aeronauts Ain’t For Me,” posted from Telluride on 9.1.19.

Eddie Murphy is going to perform some comic standup specials for Netflix. Reports have stated he’ll be paid between $40 and $70 million for these shows.

$40 to $70 million for telling jokes? Doesn’t that kind of drain the humor out of things? How funny can you be when you’re pocketing that much coin?

And what’s he gonna riff on? Murphy used to be about nervy material and envelope pushing. Obviously that’s out these days. You can’t do convention-defying comedy these days unless you’re some kind of despised outlaw renegade like Louis C.K. The wokesters have pretty much killed any semblance of a comic atmosphere…no?

A recent People article, quoting Murphy in a discussion with Today‘s Al Roker, said that “he’ll be working with different material now that he’s older and a father of 10.

“Last time I did stand-up I was 27 years old,’ Murphy said. “I look at some of my old stuff and cringe. Sometimes I’m like, I can’t believe I said that! I’m 58 now so I don’t think I’m gonna approach it the same way.”

In other words, no more jokes in the tradition of “Mr. T in a gay bar.”

Murphy told Roker he’s going to prepare for the Netflix thing by doing a tour of comedy clubs.

“You gotta go to the clubs [although] I haven’t started doing that yet,” he said. “I never wrote stuff out on paper. I would be having a conversation and I’d say something funny. And I’d be like, ‘Oh, that’s funny,’ and I would go try it on stage. That’s never stopped, I’ve just stopped taking it to the stage.”

If you ask me Murphy permanently surrendered his funnyman card when he left the Oscar telecast after he didn’t win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his Dreamgirls performance.

Donny Deutsch to Elizabeth Warren: “I’ll tell you one thing. You tell 160 million Americans that they can’t have or choose their private health care insurance, you’re gonna lose an election.”

Bill Maher (later in the show): “What do you think of polling that says 70% of Americans believe that the U.S. is on the verge of a civil war?”** Donny Deutsch: “You wanna see a civil war? Trump loses, he’s gonna tell people to take to the streets.”

** On 10.23 a survey by The Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service stated that the average American voter believes the U.S. is two-thirds of the way to the ‘edge of a civil war.’ The poll showed that when voters were asked to rate divisions in America on a scale of 0-100, with 100 being the ‘edge of a civil war,’ the mean response was 67.23.”

“Twitter is not America,” etc.

Richard Gere’s Zack Mayo: “SJWs got nowhere else to go!”

Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Julien Castro, Kamala Harris and Beto O’Rourke have already given The Beast such great material. Pushing the woke-progressive crazy-purist agenda could (God help us) work out in Donald Trump‘s favor. Unlikely but possible. Please.

Hollywood Elsewhere and the rumble hog rarely pay for underground parking. In the vast majority of cases there’s enough room to squirm past the plastic white barrier gate; ditto on the way out. This is one of the many delights of two-wheeled travel in this town.

Before last night’s Irishman premiere the three of us (Tatyana, myself and the Yamaha Majesty) managed to barely squeeze past the barrier going in, but upon leaving the space to the right of the gate looked too tight. (Or so it seemed at the moment.) So I maneuvered right behind a scruffy Toyota or Honda of some kind. The guy paid, the gate want up and I followed him right out — standard opportunistic procedure in parking lots across the globe, I presume.

There was a security guy (white shirt, black tie, badge) who was standing around. As Tatyana and I sped off, I could hear the security guy express alarm (“heeeeyyyy!”) but even with my helmet on and the engine roaring I could sense he wasn’t that into it. Maybe he was amused. He gets paid either way.

In the worldwide box-office realm, Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix‘s Joker has become the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. It has so far earned a grand tally of $788 million. Until today Deadpool‘s worldwide tally of $738 million had established it as the top-earning R-rated film from Bangkok to Bangor to Marseilles and beyond.

But domestically speaking, Mel Gibson‘s The Passion of the Christ (’04) is still Numero Uno with earnings of $370 million. Joker‘s U.S. tally is currently around $259 million.